Abstract
The crystal structure of Bi2Al4−x Fe x O9 compounds (x = 0–4) has striking similarities with the crystal structure of mullite. A complete substitution of Al by Fe3+ in both octahedral and tetrahedral sites is a particular structural feature. The infrared (IR) spectra of the Bi2M4O9 compounds (M = Al, Fe3+) are characterised by three band groups with band maxima in the 900–800, 800–600 and 600–400 cm−1 region. Based on the spectroscopic results obtained from mullite-type phases, the present study focuses on the composition-dependent analysis of the 900–800 cm−1 band group, which is assigned to Al(Fe3+)–O stretching vibrations of the corner-sharing MO4 tetrahedra. The Bi2Al4O9 and Bi2Fe4O9 endmembers display single bands with maxima centred at 922 and 812 cm−1, respectively. Intermediate Bi2Al4−x Fe x O9 compounds exhibit a distinct splitting into three relatively sharp bands, which is interpreted in terms of ordering effects within the tetrahedral pairs. Thereby the high-energy component band of the band triplet relates to Al–O–Al conjunctions and the low-energy component band to Fe–O–Fe conjunctions. The intermediate band is assigned to stretching vibrations of Al–O–Fe or Fe–O–Al configurations of the corner-sharing tetrahedral pairs. Bands in the 800–600 cm−1 range are assigned to low-energy stretching vibrations of the MO4 tetrahedra and to M–O–M bending vibrations of the tetrahedral pairs. Absorptions in the 600–400 cm−1 range are essentially determined by M–O stretching modes of the M cations in octahedral coordination.
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Acknowledgments
D.V. was supported by the Austrian ‘Fonds zur Förderung der wissenschaftlichen Forschung (FWF)’, project no. P14578-N06.
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Voll, D., Beran, A. & Schneider, H. Variation of infrared absorption spectra in the system Bi2Al4−x Fe x O9 (x = 0–4), structurally related to mullite. Phys Chem Minerals 33, 623–628 (2006). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00269-006-0108-8
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s00269-006-0108-8